Wearing Nepotism On Your Sleeves Is The New Style

By Keli Goff

Sometimes the truth hurts—especially when it's an embarrassing truth and someone calls you out on it in public. Gwyneth Paltrow, who has taken quite a drubbing in the last year or two, addressed why she believes she has so many critics in an interview with PopEater:

'I think my work ethic is the reason why I'm successful. I think that a lot of people don't want to put in effort and it's easier to not change, not do something good for you--[They're just] pissed off at someone else doing that. Everything in my life that's good is because I worked my ass off to get it and to maintain it.'

Now, I don't hate Gwyneth Paltrow.I think she's pretty and talented, and on a side note her Oscar gown this year happened to be one of my favorites, but this interview finally made me understand why she engenders such enmity among so many. It's not because she's pretty and talented (okay, that may be part of it). It's because like a lot of privileged people, she's under the delusion that she earned everything that she has, and then has the audacity to gloat about it.

In an age in which America's class-divide is greater than it's ever been, our patience has simply waned for the George W. Bush's and Gwyneth Paltrow's of the world—people who were born on third base and act like they hit a triple. America was founded on the idea that everyone has equal opportunity to carve out their piece of the American Dream, but increasingly that's becoming less and less of a reality. And there's something infuriating about listening to people born into the dream—silver rattle in one hand, silver spoon in the other--lecture the rest of us on how easy it is to obtain if we're just willing to 'work our asses off' like they do.

Gwyneth, for instance, was born to Hollywood royalty. Her father Bruce was a legendary television director of shows like St. Elsewhere, and her mother is the acclaimed actress Blythe Danner. I've heard nothing but great things about her family—a rarity in Hollywood—and I think it's wonderful that she was so fortunate to have that. But when you credit landing one of your first film roles to 'your Uncle Steven,' as in Steven Spielberg, who directed a young Gwyneth in Hook, you have officially relinquished the right to say that, 'Everything in my life that's good is because I worked my ass off to get it.'

No one likes to discuss inherited privilege because it goes against the very idea of what America stands for, but it dominates every corridor of power in our country. But you'll never hear John McCain say, 'Of course my life is a little easier than most Americans' because I was born white and male into a powerful family and then married rich, which means my kids are going to have pretty awesome lives too.'

Despite not being an exceptional student, former President George W. Bush magically gained entrance to Yale University and Harvard Business School, in part on the strength of his family pedigree. The irony? He opposed affirmative action programs, deeming them unfair

People should not be punished for being privileged. They can't help that anymore than the rest of us can help not being born into privilege. But it would be nice if they would extend the rest of us the courtesy of acknowledging their privilege, and not simply pretend that their success is built solely on a combination of hard work and chutzpah.

But it seems like increasingly all we get to hear—from members of Congress and now Ms. Paltrow—is that if we're just a bit more disciplined and willing to work a little bit harder, we can achieve the same dream as the privileged classes.

So maybe Gwyneth is on to something. Maybe we all are just a teensy-weensy bit jealous of her and her life. Why wouldn't we be? Her life is pretty great and she didn't have to work as hard as the rest of us to earn it.

Instead of bragging about the terrific homerun that she hit, perhaps she should just say 'I can't help it that I was born on 3rd, but I ran as fast as I could and played as hard as I could to win the game, and now I'm doing what I can to help others who weren't born with a silver bat.'

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Keli Goff is a contributing editor for TheLoop21.com, and can be reached at assistant@keligoff.com.

This column has been edited by the author. Representations of fact and opinions are solely those of the author.